THE 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



li^oteti to ^flrtculture, Sorttcultare, an* the ffioxmixoin 



Agriculture is th 

 Xenophon. 



3 nursin 



g mother of the Arts. — 



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the 

 State. — Sully. 



FRANK: G. RUFFIN, Editor. 



P. D. BERNARD, Publisher. 



Vol. XIV. 





RICHMOND, AUGUST, 1854. No. 8. 



For the Southern Planter. 



GRADUATED OR GUARD DITCHES FOR HILL- 

 SIDES. 



[published by order of the executive committee of 

 the virginia state agricultural society.] 



SKETCH OF A DISCUSSION 

 At a Meeting of the Powhatan Farmers' Club, No. 1 , 

 held on May 13th, 1854. 



SUBJECT. 



"The construction, use, advantages and disadvantages 

 of graduated furrows on hill-sides, to guard against the 

 washing by heavy rains."* 



Mr. Lewis E. Harvie, of Amelia, said that he 

 was an unwilling witness in behalf of hill-side or 

 guard ditches. Formerly he had been much op- 

 posed to their use, but had been driven By neces- 

 sity to adopt them ; and was now satisfied that they 

 could be so constructed as materially to prevent 

 the washing and abrasion to which the rolling lands 

 in this region are peculiarly exposed. These lands, 

 while they are generally based on clay, have a large 

 admixture of sand; and from this cause, and on 

 . account, of their being undulating and sometimes 

 precipitous, are a*pt to wash in gullies, or the soil 

 is abraded, and the hills are left bare and galled. 

 He tried to arrest this by ploughing deep and ho- 

 rizontally around the hills, and cultivated his crops 

 in the same way, leaving the land as level and 

 smooth on the surface as possible. This was suffi 

 cient to prevent injury from ordinary rains; but 

 ,he found invariably, after heavy rains, that his 

 land was much injured, and that much labor was 

 required to repair the damage done, and to restore 

 the land to its former condition. He was deterred 

 for some years from resorting to the graded or ho- 

 rizontal ditches, from having seen several farms 



* This subject had been previously fixed on for discus- 

 sion, at the request of Edmund Rufiin, Agricultural Com- 

 missioner, by whom this sketch has been prepared and re- 

 ported, by the permission, and with the aid, of the several 

 farmers who stated their experience and opinions of the 

 practice in question. The interesting and useful character 

 of this subject will be appreciated by intelligent farmers. 

 In addition, the Commissioner trusts tha» this manner of 

 discussing important, yet questionable subjects, will be ap- 

 proved by all ; and that other clubs, or meetings of farmers, 

 will use the like mode of investigating other important sub- 

 jects, and report the opposing opinions to the State Agricul- 

 tural Society, for public use and benefit. E. R. 

 Vol. XIV.— 8. 



upon which they were used, but improperly con- 

 structed and injudiciously located, and where, con- 

 sequently, the injury from washing had been greatly 

 increased by them. In consequence, however, of 

 an extraordinary fall of rain which disfigured and 

 seriously injured one of his fields, then in wheat, 

 he determined to use graded ditches on the field 

 that was to be sown in wheat the ensuing fall. The 

 experiment was made, and the ditches located and 

 constructed with much care, and he found then, 

 and ever since, where the same care has been be- 

 stowed, that generally speaking his lands have been 

 preserved from destructive washing. Occasionally, 

 some of the ditches are broken or overflowed • and 

 where such is the case, there is made one bad wash, 

 and only one; whereas, without the ditches at the 

 same time, the damage would be general. 



Great care should be taken to locate them so as 

 to intercept the water on the hill-side before it has 

 accumulated and been precipitated sufficiently to 

 commence abrading the soil ; and they should be 

 projected around the hill until they reach a point 

 at which they can be discharged without injury. 

 Such a position can almost always be found with 

 due care and precaution. In making the ditches, 

 the upper side opposite the bank, should be deepest, 

 so as to cause the water to press against the hill, 

 and not the bank. Generally there should be from 

 two to three such ditches on each hill-side. The 

 one nearest the foot or base of the hill is of great 

 value in preventing the deposit of sand on the flat 

 lands below, which deposit will, in the absence of 

 hill-ditches, fill up the water-furrows or open ditches 

 in the low-land. 



The value of these hill-ditches to the flat land at 

 the base of the hills, is scarcely, if at all, less than 

 to the high land they are constructed to protect. 

 They conduct the water, which would inundate and 

 surcharge the land, around the flat to the stream 

 or creek ; and thus the water on the bottom land 

 is no more than what falls in rain on the surface. 



The fall given to the hill-ditches should vary with 

 their length and exposure. In sharp curves, or in 

 passing across valleys, an increased fall is proper 

 and necessary. In breaking the land, he ploughs 

 across the ditches, and after a few y eats' cultiva- 

 tion, if they are properly constructed and kept 

 cleared out, there is no difficulty in hauling across 

 them, for they become mounds without a ditch in 

 most places, and then, if the water overflows them, 

 they do not break. It is much better to give them 

 too much than too little fall, for it is much easier 

 to arrest the washing inside than outside of the 

 ditch; and there is more injury usually resulting 



